How ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ Editor Had to Learn to Trust His Instincts During Secretive Filming Process

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In the editing room for “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Andrew Bird usually relies on brainstorming with a director. However, since this was Germany’s submission for the Best International Film Oscar, he found himself needing to rely more on his own judgment.

The reason for this is that the Iranian thriller, centering around a family’s disintegration when the patriarch takes on a contentious role as a judge handing down death sentences, needed to be filmed in secrecy under the guidance of director Mohammad Rasoulof. In fact, Rasoulof’s 2013 film “Manuscripts Don’t Burn,” another provocative piece about Iranian censorship, was covertly edited by an unnamed editor.

The Iranian thriller, which focuses on a family falling apart following the father’s decision to become a judge handing out death sentences in controversial cases, had to be discreetly filmed under the leadership of director Mohammad Rasoulof due to its sensitive subject matter. Interestingly, an unnamed editor secretly worked on Rasoulof’s 2013 film “Manuscripts Don’t Burn,” another film dealing with Iranian censorship.

As an editor, part of my role when collaborating with a director involves constantly challenging assumptions. I don’t simply accept things; rather, I question everything. However, self-questioning in this capacity can feel a bit unique when working independently.

Bird and Rasoulof didn’t share the same physical space during filming or post-production. Moreover, the footage was not consistently delivered to Bird. Instead, it was uploaded intermittently, either when the footage was of sufficient quality or when it was safe enough for them to do so. As a result, Bird had no idea what would be arriving next.

Since Bird doesn’t speak Farsi, the language used in the movie, Rasoulof confessed that he too pondered over how Bird would manage with just a script and edited lines in a language he can’t comprehend.

As an editor who has contributed to numerous films worldwide, Bird is accustomed to working on productions not in his native tongue. This necessitates evaluating an actor’s performance without understanding their actual words. The script provided by Rasoulof before filming helped him grasp the overall idea.

The scenes involving the family interactions within their apartment were some of the most difficult for Rasoulof to manage as a director. This was particularly challenging because he had to direct much of the film from a distance. He expressed that it was incredibly frustrating to be separated from the family since they needed to maintain the intricate dynamics of their relationships and the overall family structure.

Bird found these sequences difficult as well. In fact, one specific scene – a heated family discussion about student demonstrations around the dining table – left Bird tossing and turning for several nights in a row.

As a film enthusiast myself, I couldn’t wait to catch that particular scene early on, but I wasn’t quite ready to share it with others at the time. When I eventually did reveal it to Mohammad, he expressed satisfaction with it, yet hinted he would have approached it differently… Throughout the editing process, a question lingered in the back of my mind: “Am I editing this too much in a European style?

For Bird, the doubt about that particular scene persisted until we watched the film together at Cannes with approximately 1,500 people in the theater. It was there that I truly sensed how effective the scene was for an audience, feeling the energy and seeing people cheer. This experience ultimately put to rest any lingering doubts about the scene.

In the editing phase, it’s crucial to take into account the various social media clips woven into the movie, which depict the demonstrations that the characters Rezvan (portrayed by Masha Rostami) and Sana (played by Setareh Maleki) covertly view on their phones, as they are kept away from their more traditional parents.

Initially, while drafting the script, Rasoulof decided to include footage that was widely recognized, in order to instantly transport viewers back to this significant historical period. He had some leeway in determining precisely when and where these clips would be utilized, but he also employed a thematic strategy.

The bird received approximately 400 video clips captured by mobile phones during actual Iranian protests as free resources to incorporate into his work. He articulates how “this posed quite a challenge since many of them were unclear about the context. I attempted to select footage that would be comprehensible to a Western audience rather than merely being understandable to the local Iranian population.

Despite pondering over how different things might have turned out if Rasoulov and he could have collaborated more intimately, Bird takes pride in the final outcome of “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.

Similar to many others in the film industry, I initially entered this field with an idealistic notion that through films and art, one could influence the world positively,” Bird reminisces. “Over time, one may grow somewhat skeptical about that belief. However, when given the opportunity to work on a project like this, you realize that perhaps there is some truth to it, albeit to a certain extent.

“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” is now playing in theaters.

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2025-01-06 20:48